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Middle-America's most engaging authors since 1998.


Author Ken Gierke

Ken Gierke

Ken Gierke is a transplanted Western New Yorker, moving in retirement to mid-Missouri in 2012. His poetry has appeared in numerous anthologies, and his first poetry collection, Glass Awash, was published by Spartan Press in 2022.

Books by Ken Gierke


Random Riffs

By Ken Gierke

Published: 2025

Written on the fly, dictated into his phone in real time while traveling, Gierke finds the aesthetic center of each song and composer. I highly recommend this collection to anyone who wants a deeper understanding of how music shapes our perceptions as we travel.
—Rick Christiansen, Bone Fragments (Spartan Press 2024)

These are musings of an open-road samurai, armed with unleaded gasoline and a well-curated playlist.
—Timothy Tarkelly, The You We Know and Love

Written to the beats of his eclectic playlist, the beat goes on: not some a ‘long strange trip’, but an inspired collection!
—Sharon SingingMoon, Random Seed

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